Reliance on government is growing, not shrinking, in the aftermath of the 'Great Recession." And the same folks who shouted down their Congresspersons at Town Hall meetings in 2009 are relying more and more on the social safety net to stay alive.

The personal stories explored in this article are painful to read because the disconnect between the slogans they spew and their personal behavior is maddening. You just want to shake your head in sorrow. This portrait of a tea party activist is typical:

He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this regions long-serving Democratic congressman.

Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice.

The most dispiriting aspect of these stories is that guys like Gulbranson do show dim signs of awareness of the problem, but because they've been completely brainwashed by right-wing propaganda they're utterly unable to conceive of a solution:

You have to help and have compassion as a people, because otherwise you have no society, but financially you cant destroy yourself. And that is what were doing.
He paused again, unable to resolve the dilemma.

I feel bad for my children.

He feels bad for his children. That's what thirty years of Republican philosophy has left him for a legacy. Not: "wait a minute, there's something wrong here," not, "why has my pay stagnated for ten years while my boss's has tripled," but "I feel bad for my children."

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Keep up the anti-government bullshit you Repugs, we know you all love govrnment even when you're too damn dumb to realize you benefit from it, support the batshit crazy rightwingers and vote against your interests and and blame the Democrats for the aftermath like you've ben doing the past 30 years,

And then there are people like this man, a Tea Party voter who along with his family cares for a disabled daughter. The nature of the daughter's disability is not described in the article, but it appears to be serious enough to require special assistance at school and constant attendant home care. While he is grateful for the assistance, the father is quick to point out that he could get by with less:

Mr. Falk, who voted for Mr. Cravaack [A Tea Party Republican], said he did not want to pay higher taxes and did not want the government to impose higher taxes on anyone else. He said that his family appreciated the governments help and that living with less would be painful for them and many other families. But he said the government could not continue to operate on borrowed money.
Theyre going to have to reduce benefits, he said. Were going to have to accept it, and were going to have to suffer.

Mr Falk is not asked whether he would be willing to forego the benefits currently paying for his daughter's home care if it would mean less "suffering" for everyone else. We can only assume what his answer would be.

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These people are obviously confused and delusional out of their fucking minds.

You batshit crazy people don't know what communism/socialism is, don't start with that shit. You can't call for bullshit such as cuts in government benefits when you are getting govt handouts you dickhead, I bet all of the Tea Bastards are taking that EIC and using that Medicare/Medicaid, if they truly wanted to cut back because they believe in less government they would start with their fucking selves instead of worrying about cutting other people's shit.

You batshit crazy people don't know what communism/socialism is, don't start with that shit. You can't call for bullshit such as cuts in government benefits when you are getting govt handouts you dickhead, I bet all of the Tea Bastards are taking that EIC and using that Medicare/Medicaid, if they truly wanted to cut back because they believe in less government they would start with their fucking selves instead of worrying about cutting other people's shit.

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What is occurring in countries like Greece are very real. Let's be smart about what we do.

You batshit crazy people don't know what communism/socialism is, don't start with that shit. You can't call for bullshit such as cuts in government benefits when you are getting govt handouts you dickhead, I bet all of the Tea Bastards are taking that EIC and using that Medicare/Medicaid, if they truly wanted to cut back because they believe in less government they would start with their fucking selves instead of worrying about cutting other people's shit.

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What is occurring in countries like Greece are very real. Let's be smart about what we do.

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What do you know about Greece shithead? Come on lets see it, give the reasons why, come on.

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